Ireland day 1073. Thursday 05 September 2024- Pain
Today’s summary | Managed to get a reasonable night’s sleep despite pain in my left side. After breakfast, Val and I walked to The Garden House garden centre on Back Rd to get a bird feeder and to go to the café. After poached egg lunch back at the flat, did some admin in the afternoon then beef casserole and TV in the evening. Another brilliant nursing job by Val | ||||
Today’s weather | Torrential downpours overnight then mostly overcast but dry during the day. Moderate to strong northerly wind. Appx 16c | ||||
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Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of our route) |
Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Garden Centre Walk |
Commentary
(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).
When I went to see the doctor about my shingles on Monday, he did say “well – I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better”. I can confirm today that this is definitely true. Although the redness of my rash is fading somewhat, and I feel much less tired than yesterday, I’m getting quite a lot of pain in my left side. It feels like I have been kicked by a horse and it is definitely much worse than any pain I felt after my hip operation last year.
Anyway, despite the pain, I managed to sleep quite well last night. I found that by taking a couple of paracetamols before I went to bed, and then a couple of ibuprofens when the pain woke me up at about 4am, I got through OK. I’m hoping that as the antivirals continue to work (I am halfway through the course now) things should improve. Anyway, it’s great not to feel quite so tired.
But shingles aside, it’s been an enjoyably quiet day in Malahide today. After a relaxing start to the day and a light breakfast, we decided to do what all retired people are supposed to do which is to visit the local garden centre. Luckily (or not, depending on whether you regard this as the first step on the slippery slope to middle age), there is one about half an hour’s walk away from here, midway along the Back Road, behind the demesne.
So, as the weather was for the moment decent, we set off and made our way through the middle of the demesne to the Back Road. En route we marvelled at the dexterity of the squirrel (pictured in the banner image above) who was rushing about carrying no fewer than two large green walnuts in his mouth. I wasn’t sure exactly where he was going, and I’m not sure he was either. He seemed to dart about without any clear destination in mind. We watched his antics for a while, then when he disappeared into a hedge, we moved on.
The Garden House garden centre itself is quite nice – it’s well laid out and very expensive. We hadn’t been to the café before so treated ourselves to refreshments (€17 for a cup of tea, a coffee and a piece of cake) before picking up a house-plant and a bird feeder (which I have successfully affixed above our balcony) as we passed through the main shopping area.
After lunch back at the flat of poached egg on home made soda bread toast, I got on with some more admin and Val did some cooking (it’s excellent, I have to say). Then after a bit of feet-up time, we had beef casserole for dinner and watched some more TV in the evening. Fingers crossed the pain is a little easier tomorrow. Though everyone I have spoken to who has had shingles (which is, remarkably, pretty much everyone I know) says it takes quite a long time. So I am doing my best to manage down my expectations of swift relief!
Today’s photos (click to enlarge)
Interactive map
(Elevations corrected at GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )
Max elevation: 34 m
Min elevation: 9 m
Total climbing: 72 m
Total descent: -72 m
Total time: 02:19:45